I baught a giant birds of paradise about a month ago. Potted in a 40 L pot in full sun position, getting around 5-6 hours of direct sun per day. Water it every second day and the leaves have started to curl up and whitish brownish spots have appeared. Not sure what I'm doing wrong any help? :)

Hi and welcome, Daniel. Since you're in winter, just coming to spring now, the plant has been growing slowly. It's natural for it to lose the bottom-most leaves as it grows new ones out the top. I see you have a nice new one starting. As long as the new leaves look good, I don't think you need to worry.

As the weather gets warmer, you will need to water more often, and start to fertilize. This will help the plant to look more healthy as growth speeds up through summer. Don't worry about losing the lowest leaves.

In warm climates, you really shouldn't expect to be able to grow this plant in a pot for very long. They get huge. Better be scouting out a spot for it to grow outside, in a year or two. The pot you'll need for it by then will need a front-end loader to move.

Elaine

"Success is stumbling from failure to failure with no loss of enthusiasm." –Winston Churchill

The pot is very large for your BofP. With all of that soil, it should not need water more than once per week unless you are just adding a little water each time, which is not a good idea. Water enough so that the top inch of soil dries out after a week.

Will Creed
Horticultural Help, NYC
www.HorticulturalHelp.com
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